


don't shoot the messenger

by TheQueenInTheNorth



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Getting Together, Season/Series 01, background kasinara
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-12 18:07:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29638566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheQueenInTheNorth/pseuds/TheQueenInTheNorth
Summary: As if the sudden interruption of life on the Bus by aliens isn't bad enough, they have some thoughts on his relationship with Simmons that Fitz did not see coming.
Relationships: Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons
Comments: 6
Kudos: 27





	don't shoot the messenger

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LibbyWeasley](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LibbyWeasley/gifts).



> Happy birthday, Libby! You're the best <3

Fitz was determined to stand back from what was definitely not the meteor they had initially expected but was an actual, real-life alien spaceship. That conviction held only until May motioned Simmons closer and - well, what was he going to do, let her go alone? Fat chance of that, as much as part of him really thought that was the sensible course of action.

He squeezed past Ward, who still had his gun in hand, and Skye, who was telling him to put the damn thing away already, and was suddenly face to face with aliens.

Well, not face to face. He was standing upright, after all, and the aliens were on the floor, one on his knees next to the other, who was either unconscious or dead. There was a lot of blood on her face, anyway - or what Fitz assumed was blood. It was blue, just like the skin of the two aliens.

The kneeling one was speaking, slowly and haltingly, his brow furrowed. May was listening intently, then turned to Simmons to translate. Mandarin, Fitz thought in disbelief, the alien spoke Mandarin. As if this day wasn’t already weird enough.

“Oh,”the alien said, something like relief washing over his face,“Is this the prevalent Terran tongue? More books have made it back to Hala. It is Shakespearian, yes?”

“We call it English,”Skye called over from where she was hovering by the door, or at least the broken part of the ship they’d entered through.

The alien was no longer interested in that, instead staring at Simmons.“You will help?”

“Of course,”Simmons said, with a comforting smile and an air of confidence she didn’t actually have about alien biology.

It seemed to set the alien at ease somewhat, at least.

In the end, the alien - Kasius, Fitz reminded himself - had ended up doing most of the medical care himself, reluctant to let Simmons near his companion.

Kasius had not offered up the woman’s name but he kept speaking to her in their own language as if to soothe her, and the word ‘Sinara’ had cropped up a few times, so Fitz mentally referred to her that way.

He was currently pretending to input data in his tablet while Simmons jotted down readings from the monitor they had Sinara hooked up to. There wasn’t much Fitz could do until Kasius finally told him more about this universal translator they had that was apparently malfunctioning.

Kasius was in no state to answer any questions, rifling through cabinets in search of medical supplies that Fitz was fairly confident weren’t even needed, seeing as Sinara’s rather superficial head wound had long stopped bleeding. Aliens could be worrywarts, it seemed.

Not that Fitz was one to talk: He was hanging around because there was no way in hell he was leaving Simmons with these aliens just because they appeared harmless.

Someone had to watch her back; May was piloting, Skye was trying to get the spaceship’s computer to reboot, and Ward was getting a talking-to from Coulson for running in guns blazing. That left Fitz. Not that he thought there was much he could do if the aliens turned hostile.

Simmons wasn’t on her own, though, and that made him feel a lot better. Especially since she was so entranced with taking notes she didn’t notice when Sinara woke up.

There was a glint in her eyes that made Fitz jump into action, grabbing Simmons and dragging her a few steps back, just in time for Sinara’s fist to connect with empty air instead of Simmons’ head.

Kasius was back by the bed in a flash, hand on Sinara’s arm and hastily chattering on in their language.

“Thank you,”Simmons whispered to Fitz, just before stepping closer to the bed again anyway.

Kasius seemed to have calmed down his companion, at the least, and even convinced her to settle back into the pillow he was fluffing up for her.

She didn’t look happy about it but she relented, glowering even more when Kasius added something else in a low whisper.

“My apologies,”she ground out. Her accent was much heavier than Kasius’, more sounding out the syllables than actually knowing English, Fitz thought, and her glare did make it obvious she didn’t mean the apology anyway.

“That’s quite alright,”Simmons said.

Kasius was polite to a fault. It was quite helpful, at times, because he seemed incapable of allowing any silence without filling it with inane smalltalk and that helped them gather quite a bit about Kree culture.

Still, left alone in the lab with him while Simmons was off testing some blood samples and Sinara was sparring with May and Ward - well, suffice to say, Fitz wasn’t entirely comfortable with the situation.

He hm’ed and nodded his way through a few minutes of it, and then it all took a very strange and unforeseen turn.

“So how long have you been an item?”Kasius asked.

Fitz blinked at him for a few seconds before landing on,“Huh?”

He knew Kasius meant him and Simmons but he still didn’t understand.

“A couple,”Kasius tried again, clearly under the impression his recently repaired translator module was letting him down. It did have some trouble with expressions at times.

“Huh?”Fitz said again.“We’re not - no, no, it’s not like that.”

Kasius frowned at him, unconvinced, and tapped at the incision at the back of his neck as if trying to convince the chip to do its job.“You and Simmons are-” he chuckled, a little apologetically,“You are a mated pair, yes?”

Being addressed like livestock shook Fitz out of his stupor, at least.

“No!” He crossed his arms, then uncrossed them again when he realised how defensive and petulant it looked.“It’s not like that. We’re close, sure, but we’re just friends. Totally platonic.”

The Kree prince looked so confused that now Fitz was reasonably sure something was getting lost in translation, so he added,“Like you and Sinara.”

“Yes, like Sinara and I,”Kasius said, a small frown still edged on his brow.“That is what I have been saying.”

“Oh.” Fitz swallowed hard.“Uh, then no. Not like you and Sinara.”

Kasius scoffed and turned back to the drone they were fiddling with, mumbling something under his breath that was no doubt not flattering, though Fitz was just glad he’d dropped the subject.

  
  


"Did you know they're together?"

“Huh?” Skye frowned at him and the sudden change of topic.“The blues, you mean?”

Fitz nodded and took a sip of his beer, trying to act casual. He didn’t want to relay the conversation that had brought him to this realisation.

“My bunk is right by theirs,”Ward said as he walked past the couch. Instead of getting a beer from the fridge like the rest of them, he just got an ice pack and was leaving again.

Sinara had landed a very good blow in training, apparently.

“I’m Agent Grant Ward, I can sulk like a toddler,”Simmons whispered and the three of them dissolved into silent giggles.

Once they’d calmed down again, Simmons frowned at Fitz.“How did the whole ‘one bunk’ set-up not tip you off?”

It probably should have, now that she pointed it out...

“They said it’s because she’s his guard,”Fitz said. It had made sense at the time, somehow. Who wanted to be split up from the person they trusted on some strange planet they had no business being on in the first place?

Simmons smacked her palm against her forehead.“Ugh, Fitz! You can be so dense sometimes.”

The Kree were looking over to them, snickering, and Kasius whispering something to Sinara.

Simmons frowned at them and then looked to Fitz.“What’s going on with them?”

“Uh - no idea,”Fitz stammered. He pushed his tablet over to Simmons.“Here, how’s that?”

“Perfect,”she said but she’d barely glanced at it.“Do you think they’re up to something? They’ve been acting strange all day.”

“No, I don’t think they’re up to anything,”Fitz said. Aside from laughing at him, obviously, but if he admitted that, he’d have to admit why. He really didn’t want to talk about what Kasius had assumed. It was bad enough he’d been thinking about practically nothing else since the day before.

Simmons raised an eyebrow at him.“So you think this is normal?”

“They’re probably flirting,”Fitz dismissed.

“Yesterday you didn’t know they were together, now you think they’re flirting.” Simmons rolled her eyes but dropped the matter. For now, anyway.“Let me see that chart again?”

He did, and glared at Kasius when Simmons was distracted. All it got him was more chuckles from the prince and Sinara saying something that had them both cracking up even more.

“That’s it,”Simmons said.“I’m telling Coulson. Something’s going on.”

Fitz dropped his folders in alarm.“What? What do you mean?”

Simmons put a lilt to her voice that made it perfectly obvious she was imitating Kasius.“Do try to enjoy your dinner, even under these circumstances.” She dropped the pretense and added,“What was that supposed to mean?”

That, Fitz had to admit, wasn’t so easily explained away. It could sort of sound like a threat without the context. It also made it perfectly clear that Kasius did not think Fitz’ feelings towards Simmons were entirely platonic - and he was becoming less convinced of that by the minute himself.

Why was he so hesitant to just tell Simmons what had been said? They’d been mistaken as a couple at the Academy before. It had never been a big deal, just something they’d laughed off. If nothing had changed, why was it suddenly such a big deal now?

As if to prove to himself that it wasn’t a big deal at all, that everything was the way it always had been, Fitz said,“They’re not up to anything. Kasius thought we were a couple and I don’t think he really believed me when I said we’re not.”

Simmons just gaped at him as if he’d grown a second head.

“I know.” Fitz chuckled, though it sounded forced even to his own ears.“Ridiculous, isn’t it?”

“He said that?”

“Asked me how long we’ve been together, actually.”

“Oh.” Simmons was frowning again, now.“And what did you tell him?”

“That we’re not a couple, of course,”Fitz said lamely. Why didn’t that, true as it was, seem enough? Trying to think, Fitz already heard himself add,“Uh, that we’re just platonic friends and he’s crazy?”

Simmons’ frown only deepened at that.“He thought we were a couple and you told him he’s crazy.”

Not the right thing to say, then. Maybe he should’ve stuck to just quoting what had actually been said, no embellishments. It was crazy, though, wasn’t it? He and Simmons weren’t interested in each other like that - if he’d thought about it once or twice (or eight dozen times) that was just because they were such close friends and he was attracted to women, so of course it had crossed his mind, that didn’t mean -

“Why is that so crazy?”Simmons interrupted his rambling mind. She’d gone past frowning and into glaring.

Fitz shrugged helplessly. If she wanted to go call the Kree worse than crazy, he wasn’t going to stop her but she really didn’t need to level that angry look his way. She looked more mad than when they’d first tried to agree on a filing system.

“Go ahead, tell me.” She crossed her arms and jutted her chin out.“Why is that idea so crazy to you?”

Fitz scoffed, opened his mouth to answer, realised what she’d actually said, and closed his mouth again. Finally, he settled on,“Well, what would your answer have been?”

“I wouldn’t have said it’s crazy,”Simmons snapped.“It isn’t that far fetched an assumption to make!”

“It’s not?”

“Of course not! We’d make a great couple! We are very compatible, in terms of personalities and goals and attitude towards life, not to mention we are both rather attractive by objective standards -”

“Simmons?”Fitz interrupted carefully. She was talking herself into quite the frenzy but he couldn’t suppress a smile at her words, even now that she was glaring again because he’d cut her off.“Sorry, you can go back to yelling in a second. Just one question. Do you maybe want to try to date?”

“Do I -” She blinked at him, mouth agape, for so long that he was just about to claim he’d been kidding when she recovered, stepping closer.“Well, there’s one more area of compatibility we need to check.”

And then her lips were on his and her fingers in his hair and his hands on her hips, pulling her closer, and he stopped thinking altogether.


End file.
